卞 (biàn): (surname) Bian

Meanings

1 (surname) Bian
2 law; statute (archaic)
3 hurried; impetuous (archaic)

Characters

卞

biàn

surname Bian; (archaic) law

Examples

卞先生出身于一个老家族。

Biàn xiānsheng chūshēn yú yīgè lǎo jiāzú.

Mr. Bian comes from an old family.

卞和献玉的故事千古闻名。

Biàn Hé xiàn yù de gùshi qiāngǔ wénmíng.

The story of Bian He presenting the jade is famous throughout history.

Tips

culture

Today 卞 is met almost only as a surname. Its most famous bearer is 卞和, the man who, by legend, found a raw jade and was crippled twice for it before a king finally recognized its worth — the source of the treasure called 和氏璧 (He's jade disc). The old common-noun senses 'law' and 'impatient' are no longer used.

Components

radical

卜 bǔ

divination

The indexing radical, the divination glyph 卜 (a vertical with a side stroke, picturing a crack on a heated oracle bone). 卞 is filed in radical browsing under 卜 even though the modern character carries no divination sense.

ideograph

亠 tóu

lid; top stroke

The 'lid' top, an abstract two-stroke cap (a dot over a short horizontal). It carries no meaning of its own here; it simply sits above the 卜 body, the way it caps characters such as 六 and 市.